Translation- A note- 1

Translation is a kind of activity which inevitably involves at least two languages and two cultural traditions." (Toury 1978). As this statement implies, translators are permanently faced with the problem of how to treat the cultural aspects implicit in a source text (ST) and of finding the most appropriate technique of successfully conveying these aspects in the target language (TL). These problems may vary in scope depending on the cultural and linguistic gap between the two (or more) languages concerned (Nida 1964).

Translation studies-relating both to questions of theory and practice-represent a growing body of work which, in recent times, has received insightful inputs from scholars working within different disciplines- linguistics, semiotics, culture studies, literary theory, psychology, etc. this confluence and convergence on translation has not only elevated it form a second rate activity to a ‘high pedestal’ of a discipline, but also brought into sharp focus the ‘translator’ and the role he plays as another creator, or recreator, or as a mere imitator; the ‘translated text’, whether it is mere imitation or outstands the original text; and the ‘process of translation’ which was never theorized until last century.

Recent times have witnessed the emergence of the translation theory, a theory informed and enriched by linguistic, literary and cultural theories, a theory which has enabled a better understanding of creative literatures and transformation these texts undergo in the process of translation form one language and culture to another, leading to an enhanced understanding and appreciation of not only comparative literary studies, but of translated literatures, which form a sizeable part of several world literatures.

Translation is a useful test case for examining the whole issue of the role of the language in social life. In creating a new act of communication out of a previously existing one, translators are inevitably acting under the pressure of their own social conditioning while at the same time trying to assist in the negotiation of the meaning between the producer of the source language (ST) and the reader of the target language (TT), both of whom exist within their own, different social frameworks. We are in effect seeking insights that take us beyond translation itself towards the whole relationship between language activity and the social context in which it takes place. TRANSLATION IS A COMMUNICATIVE PROCESS WHICH TAKES PLACE WITHIN A SOCIAL CONTEXT.

But it needs to be recognized that translation does not happen in a vacuum, but in a continuum; it is not an isolated act, but a part of ongoing process of intellectual transfer. Translation is also not innocent, transparent activity, but highly charged with significance as at every stage: it rarely involves a relationship of equality between texts, authors, or systems, as the post colonials would have it (Bassnett and Trivedi: 1999).